SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, July 28, 2006
JERUSALEM  Israel has struck Hizbullah positions near the border of Syria as forces in Syria were placed on high alert.

On Thursday, Israeli F-15Is struck a suspected Hizbullah training camp in the Bekaa Valley near the Syrian border. The Syrian military, deployed several kilometers away, did not respond.
Israeli officials and intelligence sources said Iran and Syria have accelerated the flow of weapons and combatants into Lebanon. They said Damascus and Teheran have also been bolstering forces to prepare for a war from Syrian territory, Middle East Newsline reported.

"They [Syrians] are operating along the border and we can't ignore this," Israeli Cabinet minister Eli Yishai said on Friday.

Officials said Syria has placed its forces on the highest alert in years and deployed missile batteries along the border with Lebanon. They said Israel, which has ordered the mobilization of three reserve divisions, plans to station Arrow-2 and PAC-2 missile defense systems to protect Tel Aviv from Syrian rockets and missiles.

The focus of Israeli concern has been the deployment of Zelzal-2 rockets in southwestern Syria along the Lebanese border. They said Syria has transferred Zelzal-2 batteries, with a range of more than 200 kilometers, to Hizbullah's Nasser Brigade.

"The most likely scenario is that Hizbullah would bring these mobile launchers into Lebanon, fire them and return to Syria," an Israeli intelligence source said.

"Syria is in one of its weakest moments -- from the point of view of its air power and tank capabilities," Israeli Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Friday. "It is true that Syria has focused on its missile and commando capabilities. But overall I don't feel that Syria wants to become entangled in war. I don't assess that it will initiate [a war]."

The U.S. intelligence community was said to have assessed that Iran has been expanding its military presence in Lebanon and Syria. U.S. intelligence sources said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has overseen a weapons airlift to Damascus as well as the arrival of more than 1,000 fighters from Iran and Iraq.

"Damascus will likely run many risks trying to manipulate the situation to its advantage," said Jeffrey White, a former government intelligence analyst and today a researcher at the Washington Institute. "But the Assad regime has proven itself a poor player at this sort of game, making Syria the most likely source of actions that carry the fighting beyond Lebanon and northern Israel."

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